Posting here because it's OT. You made a good point about shades of gray in ASOIAF, and my post was probably not fully thought out. I meant that ASOIAF has characters that are clearly "the good guys" whose side the reader is supposed to take, and others who are clearly "the bad guys", and whenever one goes against type it comes off as superficial and juvenile. "Ooh, the good/bad guy did a bad/good thing! What do I think now, I'm sooo conflicted." It has entertainment value, but I don't think it's any kind of improvement over unambiguous good/evil stories.
